Dan D'Aquisto

Dan D'Aquisto

Why did you start your business in North Carolina?

2ULaundry started from a classroom project at Wake Forest University in 2012. My best friend and cofounder, Alex, was a sophomore at WFU and bought what was called Wake Wash with two of his friends. Over the next two years and upon graduation, Alex and his team grew Wake Wash 100% MoM and ended up selling for around $200,000 to incoming students to keep it student ran. Alex and his friends split up and started their big boy job search. Alex ended up in Charlotte working as a consultant for EY. After a year and a half, in August 2015, Alex reached out to his longtime friend Dan D'Aquisto who was in Minneapolis, MN. Alex pitched Dan the idea of starting 2ULaundry and focusing on the mass market of Charlotte to test our pilot service. Dan was in. He quit his job, broke up with his girlfriend, broke the lease on his house and drove 20 hours straight to Charlotte. They hit the ground running. Now, 8 months in, 2ULaundry is Charlotte's premier laundry service and has grown 60% MoM since inception. 2ULaundry is raising their seed round currently from some local Raleigh investors and has plans to grow even faster and open up its Raleigh market in Q4 2016.

What is the best part about running your business in your community?

Charlotte. The best part about Charlotte is the open arms this community brings to the startup culture. As two founders who are not originally from Charlotte or NC, the resources were easy to find and allowed for tangible assets to leverage for growth. There are a large number of people here who want to grow the community startup scene so it is easy to get involved. Charlotte is a very large city, but small town feel.

What do you believe your North Carolina community has that other startup hubs can’t offer?

We have such a strong community of startup founders here in Charlotte. The startup scene is very very small compared to Raleigh, Nashville, Chattanooga, etc., and we come together to connect, learn, share and grow together. This is invaluable.